Urban agriculture

Urban agriculture can contribute to urban needs by connecting local food and energy production to community goals, like care for the urban environment, room for recreation in urban areas, care-facilities or educational possibilities. Urban agriculture can be a garden on a rooftop or balcony, an allotment for amateur gardeners or professional urban food production and processing at the edges of a city. Each of these types of urban agriculture should be given its place under the sun. Urban agriculture can contribute to a liveable and sustainable city in many ways. It may help to reduce the urban environmental footprint.

More than half of the global population lives in cities. This urbanisation leads to high claims on land and space, a growing need for liveable urban structures and increasing demands for recognisable, locally produced food. Cities and their surrounding countryside are becoming more and more entwined. Wageningen University & Research sees opportunities for new forms of agriculture in natural settings in and around cities.